What is a Cal-looker, and how is it supposed to be used?
Jon:
It's an interesting question, and one we always comes back to...
What is a cal looker, and how fast is it supposed to be? Or does ET's don't even enter the equation?
Is the "look" the entire look..? ...is it ok that the performance stops you from driving coast to coast?
Is it a local cruiser... or a "state hopper" ?
Feel free to draw historical links if you want to....
Andi/DFL:
no historic link, just my opinion :-)
I don't care about the horsepower in a cal looker. the car needs to have the right "intention" (as long as a car can have that). if you take a look at ron flemings early black oval, with the stock engine (just a velocity stack on the carb and an aftermarket exhaust) - a perfect cal looker for me. fast times is nice, but it's the last thing I care about when I see a nice cal looker.
so maybe it's a definition of cal-look itself, that needs to be more precise. a "late-60ies-not-fast-but-cool-maybe-not-even-lowered-at-the-front-cal-looker" is surely something different than a "modern-msd-nos-alloy-fittings-superfast-and-stylish-cal-looker". i prefer the first type :)
and one thing that is also for me very important: the joy of driving a cal-looker on the autobahn for longer distances, not just short distances. it's so much fun looking into the faces of other car passenger that point their finger at your car, or children waving at you. this is maybe the biggest part that makes the fun in my hobby for me. and HELL, YES - I'M A POSER! :))
then the trip to spa 2002 always comes to my mind: perfect weather, sunset, driving in a convoy of cal-lookers to a show, trunk full with beer and beeing asked to become a DFL member on that evening - this day was close to perfect. and it would not have been half as nice, if i pulled my car on a trailer towards that sunset :)))
cheers,
andi
ps: is www.roadgoing-idas.com still available? :))
jose del orto:
First of all,
for me is a cal-looker a car to use, and not to spend many hours polishing the wheels. A car like many sportcars back in the fifties, when gentlemen drivers drove on sunday with their Porsches, Alfas, ... to the track, raced and drove back home in the evening. Of course, cal-look is something else, but the spirit is for me the same.
Further on, I think that every cal-look-driver is a little bit a poser, as this is primarily an esthetical "science" (right stance? right wheels? right colour? accessories?).
To be the fastest doesn't seem to have the same importance to everybody, and I'm happy with that. We all like to see a yellow boosted convertible wheeling and opening the top at the same time, even if we maybe don't want to do the same to our car!
SilverPig:
When it comes to engine power...isn't it so that the first lookers didn't have the choice of components as we do today...like stroker crankshafts, crazy flowing heads with dinner plate sized valves, fancy ignition systems and wild cams? With that in mind, todays cal-lookers aren't less lookers because of these advantages, it's simply a question of evolution. BUT...should a real die hard looker have a small displacement engine with period hi-po parts?
SOB/RFH:
SOLID COLOR (even primer is a solid colour)
THE PERFECT STANCE AND RAKE
BIG'N LITLES ON TIMELESS RARE OG WHEEL
LOTīS AND LOTīS OF HORSEPOWER
How it is used!! Irresponsible is a good try to describe it! "Exebition of speed tickets" fills the glovebox side by side with unsorted with time slips, most in the 12's!!! Hardcore......You bet!!! It can be seen at the local hamburger bar with the owner leaning against the car waking up when sound oh HP cars can be heard!!! No clean cloths as T-shirts is used for celaning and trousers works double as a cheap wise!! with age cloths gets cleaner and solid paint leaves the suede state!! Itīs a lifestyle!!
8)
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